Grady Champion

The youngest of his father’s 28 children, Grady Champion joined his church choir at the age of eight and realized his passion for music. In 1998, after learning to play the harmonica, Grady released his first album, the self-released Goin’ Back Home. Champion enjoyed performing at blues clubs all over Florida, and was quickly scooped up by Shanachie Records, with whom he released Payin’ for My Sins (1999) and 2 Days Short of a Week (2001). Back in Mississippi: Live at the 930 Blues Cafe followed in 2008, released on Grady’s own GSM Music Group imprint. In 2010 he won the International Blues Challenge.

In 2011, Champion’s song “Make That Monkey Jump” won a Blues Critic Award in the Best Down Home Blues Song category. He then released Dreamin’ (2012) and Tough Times Don’t Last (2013) on his own Grady Shady Music imprint, the former of which was nominated for two 2012 Blues Music Awards: Best Soul Blues Album and Song of the Year for “Thank You for Giving Me the Blues.” “I play what I feel,” says Grady Champion, whose socially conscious lyrics and inspiring live performances have earned him a 2014 cover story in Living Blues magazine. Inactive as of 2/1/18